George Washington and Thomas Jefferson's historic homes were passive solar homes. Recall that those two men were surveyors, well familiar with the angles of the sun which vary with the season.Until this century, all buildings were constructed with attention to the sun.

Every civilization prior to 1900 used renewables as their primary source of energy. Consider the cliff-dwellings, set into south-facing rock cliffs which absorbed the sun's warmth in winter and radiated it back out at night. The hot summer's rays, high overhead or to the north most of the day, did not penetrate into the dwellings in summer, particularly when they were built under a natural rock overhang.